Avon’s had its fill of fast teams through the first two rounds of the playoffs.
Tonight, the Eagles put their unbeaten season, a regional championship and a trip to state on the line against a team known for its size and power.
“My greatest fear, honestly, is just their sheer size,” Eagles coach Mike Elder said of Sunbury Big Walnut, the Eagles’ opponent in tonight’s Division III, Region 10 championship game at Ashland Community Stadium. “We’re not a very big team. We’re quick and have good speed. Our biggest kid on our team is around 230 pounds. We’re going to have trouble moving some guys.”
On paper, Sunbury Big Walnut is a tough test simply because the Golden Eagles, as the Division III defending state champions, will have the edge in experience.
Hold that thought, said Big Walnut coach Scott Wetzel.
“We’ve had to re-do our defense quite a bit this year because we lost so much to graduation last year,” he said. “We only have one starter back from the offensive side of the ball, too, so we’ve had to retool quite a bit on that side as well. Our starting quarterback, our starting fullback and our starting tailback were all playing JV at the beginning of the season.
“So we’ve had to do some experimentation as far as who to put where this season.”
Wetzel said his team is about 60-40 run on offense, but Elder seems to think that percentage may go up a bit when the Golden Eagles take the field against his team.
“They are a run-first team,” Elder said. “There’s no question they’re going to pound it at us just like everyone else has.”
On defense, the Golden Eagles use a hybrid of the 3-4 and 4-3 schemes, popping in and out of each throughout the game. While probably everyone in the state knows about Avon’s high-flying offense by now, it was the Eagles’ defense that Wetzel saved most of his praise for.
“They’re obviously the best team we’ve played this year,” Wetzel said of the Eagles. “Defensively, they just get after it. I’ve been very impressed with the play of their linebackers, their front line and their DBs. It looks like they just took their 11 best athletes and put them on that side of the ball.
“They are a very aggressive defense with a lot of team speed.”
Elder makes sure to emphasize how much Avon admires Big Walnut’s recent run of postseason appearances and the state title last year. But he also doesn’t want his players being too awed by the Golden Eagles.
“We talk about them being the defending state champs, but at the same time they realize they aren’t the state champs,” Elder said. “A lot of those kids graduated.
“Rocky River was the defending West Shore Conference champs. We played them and gave them their due respect, but we knew that we were a different team and so were they.”

UNSUNG HERO

Collin Krebs, senior, pirate safety

Avon’s 3-3 stack defense allows for an extra defensive back on the field, and that position is filled by 5-foot-7, 150-pound senior Collin Krebs.
The position is known as the pirate safety — or weak-side safety — which is appropriate since Krebs ransacked Tiffin Columbian’s playoff run with his pillaging of an Ethan Kagy pass in last Saturday’s 13-6 victory in the regional semifinals.
“He had a pick for us in the last game and it was while he was covering their stud receiver,” Eagles coach Mike Elder said. “That kid is probably about 6-3 and Collin’s only 5-7. It was a big play.”
Krebs shook off praise for his second interception of the season, saying it was a product of a week filled with strong scouting.
“We all read that play and we knew it was coming,” he said. “A lot of that was just good preparation from our coaching staff. But it was nice because it was in the fourth quarter of a really close game. So that was pretty cool for me.”
The unassuming attitude is probably why Krebs’ name isn’t often mentioned when people talk about Avon’s success this season, but it’s the underlying leadership tone that makes him such a valuable part of the equation.
“He’s a little undersized, but he’s always in the right position, making plays,” Elder said. “He’s the kind of kid that in practice, every time we line up as a first-team offense he’s over there giving us a good look and playing defense to make sure that we have good competition.”
The progression has been slow but satisfying for Krebs.
“I was excited because I played corner last year and we went up against a lot of teams that run so I spent a lot of time on the outside edges of the field not seeing a lot of action,” Krebs said. “I was happy when I got pushed to pirate. It’s kind of the best of both worlds. You get to do pass coverage and come up and help defend the run, too.”
Through 10 regular-season games, Krebs totaled 40 tackles, a sack and an interception. The stats have been a nice feather in his cap, but he’s even more satisfied that he’s been able to help an under-the-radar defense gain some recognition.
“We can play well on both sides of the ball,” Krebs said. “A lot of people before the playoffs thought we were only an offensive team. They thought our offense was the only reason we were any good. So it’s cool to be able to play a whole game in the playoffs and show people what we’re capable of.”

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